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Sep 29

Disadvantages of Phone Verification for Gmail Login – How to Disable 2 Step Verification

Disadvantages of Enabling Phone Verification for Gmail Login 

Gmail 2 Factor Authentification, a security system that protects your Gmail account from being hijacked by requesting phone verification has its advantages, which many of you are aware of. The main advantage of phone verification is that even if somebody steals your password, they won’t be able to log in and access your account. The second layer of protection offered by 2 Factor authentification will ask the hacker to verify their identity using a mobile number that belongs to the owner. Since all mobile phone numbers are unique, and the hacker doesn’t have access to your phone, they will be blocked.

However, enabling phone verification is only good when you are not a cross-border traveller. If you don’t travel much outside of your country, you will be able to use 2 Factor authentification to log into your Gmail account.
The problem with using Two-Factor authentification outside of your country is that you will be blocked from signing into your account, even if you are the owner of that account. Gmail will automatically detect a suspicious login if you are visiting a foreign country, blocking your password and requesting phone verification. This is frustrating, especially if you don’t have a second number enabled for that location. So what is the solution to this problem?

Disable Phone Verification When You Are Travelling

To prevent being locked out of your Gmail account when you are crossing borders, you have to disable phone verification while you are in the verified country of origin. To turn off 2 Step verification, log into your account and follow these steps:

My Account

1. In your Gmail account, click the “Google Apps” icon. This multi-square icon is located on the top right, next to your Google Profile icon.
2. Click “My Account” in the drop down menu.
3. On the resulting page, click “Sign-in & Security”.


4. On the “Sign-in & Security” page, scroll down until you see “2-Step Verification”. If it’s ON, turn it OFF.


5. Before you turn it off, you will be required to log into your account again. Log in with your usual password and follow instructions.

Nov 15

Add External Email to Your Gmail Account and Reply From Another Address [SMTP / POP3 Mail] – Connect To Server

 

Gmail – Add and Send Mail from Another Email Address

If you have your own webhosting account where your email accounts and domains are hosted, for example info@hillaryclinton.com or admin@donaldtrump.com  you can set up your accounts with Gmail so that any mail that is sent to these email addresses is accessed on your Gmail inbox.

When you purchase a webhosting plan, the company will give you the login details to your server or CPanel (Control Panel). Webservers that run on Linux Apache are the most common ones but there are other types of servers.

Setting Up

Before you set up Gmail with your webhosting account, you must log into your Cpanel to create POP3 email accounts for your domains. Gmail works with POP3 mail accounts, so make sure that your server supports POP3 mail accounts. The procedure for creating a POP email account in your webserver is not complicated at all but it’s very simple.

How to Create POP3 Email account

  • Log into your server CPanel
  • Go to Email services
  • Click the icon “Email Accounts”
  • Select your Domain
  • Enter a username for your EMAIL and password .Click “Create Account”
CPanel Email Services

Go to CPanel Email Services and Click “Email Accounts”

Create POP Email

Create POP Email – username@domain.com

 

So assuming that you already have domains or addon domains added on your Cpanel, which are resolving / pointing to your server, your POP3 email accounts should be ready to use.

Your next step is forwarding your POP3 email account to your Gmail address. Let’s say your POP3 email address is myself@president.com  and your Gmail address is myself@gmail.com

You should forward myself@president.com to myself@gmail.com. This is done in your webserver.

 

How to Forward POP3 Email to Gmail

  • In your CPanel, go to Email services
  • Click the icon “Forwarders”
  • Click “Add Forwarder”
  • Enter a username for your POP email address
  • Enter your Gmail address under Destination
Step 1 - Forwarding POP Mail

Step 1 – Click Add Forwarder

 

Step 2 - Forward POP to Gmail

Step 2 – Enter Username@ and Destination Address

 

Adding POP account to Gmail

Now that you have set up everything on the server side (creating POP mail and forwarding to Gmail), your next step is adding your POP email to your Gmail account. Log into your Gmail account, go to Settings. Under Settings, click Accounts and Import on the top menu. Go to the section “Check mail from other accounts” and click “Add a POP3 mail account you own”. When you click the link, a box shown below will pop up. You have to fill in the required details. You can also add your POP email from “Send Mail As” section by clicking “Add Another Email Address You Own”. Now this is the part which presents a lot of issues for most people, so you must pay attention when you arrive at this step.

Go To Settings > Accounts and Import > Check Mail From other Accounts > Add a POP3 Mail Account

Go To Settings > Accounts and Import > Check Mail From other Accounts > Add a POP3 Mail Account

 

Add a POP3 Mail Account

Add a POP3 Mail Account

 

Step 2

Step 2

 

Step 3

Step 3

 

step-3-add-another-email-gmail-pop3-account

Step 4

 

Step 5

Step 5

Connecting to Server

A lot of people will attempt to use the default settings which are shown in the pop-up box i.e. the username and POP server details, but this is a wrong approach which can cause errors and prevent you from adding your email account. Webservers and web-hosting accounts are configured differently, so the default settings on your Gmail window might not work. You have to get the correct settings from your webhost. Ask your webhosting company to give you details for setting up a POP3 mail account with an external email service. This includes the username and server name.

Attempting to connect directly with your POP mail account username and password might not work because some webhosts don’t allow it or the connection might be blocked. Some webhosts will only allow you to connect with your CPanel password for security purposes. So if your POP account details are giving you errors, you should try to use your Cpanel details or else ask your webhost.

When you add a new external email address to your Gmail account, Gmail will ask you to confirm your request. A confirmation code is sent to your external email. Log into your webmail on your server and click the confirmation link. If your external email is set up to forward to your Gmail account, log into your Gmail account to access the confirmation code. Copy the code and paste it on the window as shown below, and click Verify.

A Confirmation Code and Link is sent to your POP email account

A Confirmation Code and Link is sent to your POP email account

Step 5

Enter the Confirmation Code as shown above and click Verify

Ports

Gmail can connect using Port 587 and 110

 

Reply From Another Email Address or As Another Account

After adding your POP email address on your Gmail account and connecting to your server, you are now ready to send or reply messages within your Gmail inbox from another email address. This is your POP email address (es) that you added on your Gmail account. In order for you to reply emails as another account, you have to select the option in your Gmail settings. Go to Settings >> Accounts and Import >> “Send Mail As” and select “Reply from the same address the message was sent to”

Now when you compose email or when you reply messages in your inbox, you will realize that there is a small arrow in the “From” field just above the Subject heading. Click the arrow to select an email address from the drop-down list. Select the address you wan’t to reply from. Write your message and send your email.  When your contact receives and opens the email, he or she will see the address you replied from, not your default address.

Reply From Another Email

Reply From Another Email – GMAIL

 

 

 

Aug 23

Gmail – How to Label Incoming Mail – Automatic Labels For Future Messages

Gmail Labels are like tags that allow you to tag received email and they also function as custom categories or folders that help you group and classify your email. Labels are useful if you receive a lot of mail from diverse contacts and companies. The primary folders in your Gmail account are the Inbox, Sent Messages, Trash, Spam, Drafts and View All, but if you need more folders, you can use Labels to create custom folders that help you classify incoming email for your needs. This feature helps you organize and sort your mail. After labeling all your important email, you are left with a clean inbox that helps you identify all the worthless email that is still coming into your inbox.

Labels not only assist you in organizing and cleaning your inbox, but they also save time and effort that you would spend going through heaps of email to find messages of a particular topic or contact. Just by looking at the labels on the left sidebar of your Gmail account, you will be able to identify a folder that contains a subject that you are looking for. As an example, depending on the types of email that you receive, you can create a folder labeled “Jobs” to track your job applications, “Utility Bills” to track your home bills and “Online Shopping” to keep track of your online purchases and orders. If you feel that broad categories are not so streamlined for your needs, you can create more specific folders e.g. “Amazon” “EBay” “Software” “Data Plans” “Restaurants” “Travel” “Doctor” and “Subscriptions”.

Labeling Practices

It is recommended to label email as soon as you receive it. In most cases, people will only think of Labeling when they have accumulated a lot of email in their inbox. This will give you a lot of work that could have been avoided by starting earlier, and it’s certainly not a pleasant job to go back through hundreds of messages. If you are like a lot of users that are not email-geeks or technically savvy, you will only realize the need for organization when your inbox is filled with junk and clutter. It’s very easy to lose track of important messages among the clutter and this is the point when most users with a busy inbox find it convenient to start labeling their messages, but simply labeling your email will not sort the clutter issues. The common assumption is that after labeling your email, all future incoming mails will be automatically assigned to that Label, but as you have already noticed this is not the case.

How to Label Incoming Mail

In order to automatically label all future incoming messages, you have to apply the settings for each of your contacts. As soon as your receive email from contact X or email X, you must do the following:

–          In your inbox, select the message
–          Click the More tab on the far right of top menu
–          In the drop-down box, select Filter Messages Like These
–          A box will pop up. The From filter is prefilled with the email address of the sender
–          Go down the box and click Create Filter on the bottom right of the box
–          A new box will pop up. On the form, select Apply the label, then choose the label from the selection. Click Create Filter at the bottom. That’s all.
–          All future incoming messages from this contact will be automatically labeled, allowing you to check new messages under that Label instead of going to the inbox.

Mass Labeling Incoming Mail

Gmail allows you to mass label multiple messages in your inbox. This is a quicker method for those who have accumulated a lot of email and who never labeled their email initially. To label multiple messages at once, open your inbox. On the current page view, select all messages that you want to assign a Label. Click the More tab at the top. Select Filter Messages in the drop down list. A box that is prefilled with selected contacts will pop up. Click Create Filter on the bottom of the form. A new box will appear. Select Apply Label and choose the label that you want to apply. Click Create Filter on the bottom of the form. That’s all. You have just assigned a Label to all future incoming email from the selected contacts.

1 – Select Messages

Jan 16

Save Data with Opera Max App for Google Android Phones

Opera is a software company that is well known for its innovative Opera Browser that makes use of data compression technology to reduce the size of files downloaded on your browser. When you browse a website, you are actually downloading the pages, feature-rich websites can quickly eat up your data plan especially if you have limited megabytes.

How to Save Data with Opera Browser
If you are on a desktop browser, you can activate Opera Turbo to reduce the size of files downloaded on your device. Select the option on the drop-down menu of the top left tab.

If you are using a mobile phone, you should have Opera Mini installed on your phone, and make sure you change the image quality to “Low” under the settings. This will allow you to save data. If you choose a high image quality, you will waste a lot of data, the difference is noticeable.

Smartphones use a lot more data than standard GSM cellphones.If you have an Android mobile phone, you can minimize data usage by lowering the image quality on your Opera Mobile browser. Go to your browser, click menu on the bottom left side of your screen >> Tools >> Settings, and select a Low resolution for your images.
The data saving methods above only work for browser-based activity, they will not work on applications that you have installed on your phone. Many people are surprised how they have used so much data on their phones despite using a few applications. If you want to use an application like Facebook on your phone without consuming a lot of data, then you should log into Facebook straight from your Opera Mini browser to benefit from data compression technology. Applications like Facebook can consume a lot of data within an instant if you are not aware. It all depends on the richness of the content, is it high quality, low quality or average. New technologies like webp,a web format which strives to maximize compression while enhancing or maintaining picture quality are being adopted by entities such as Google,Facebook and many other websites. At the present moment, only Google Chrome and Opera support webp.
Opera Max for Android
The best way to save data on your Android phone is to install the Opera Max app. Compared to Facebook, Whatsapp doesn’t consume a lot of data. However, most applications (e.g. games) can consume a lot of data and leave you wondering how you used that amount of data in a short period of time. Opera Max is an application by Opera that controls the amount of data used by your apps and mobile browser. It can reduce the size of content downloaded on your phone (e.g. videos, app content , browser content and images) by more than 50%.The developers claim the app can compress a 10mb video by as much as 70%.If you are annoyed by buffering and slow web-surfing issues, Opera Max can speed up mobile video playback and improve your surfing speed.

Some of the features of Opera Max are listed below:
–          See the amount of data used by each app
–          See the amount of data used  and saved on a daily basis
–          See the amount of data used and saved every month
–          Block apps which consume a lot of data
Opera Max will allow you to see apps that are using data although you aren’t using them. Just by checking the usage statistics, you will be able to take action on apps that are running on your mobile.
This data saving android app is currently available in 16 countries, and it will be rolled out to other countries in due course.

Download the App

Opera Max

 

Jan 15

Beware of Tech Support Scams for Gmail, Netflix, AOL, Facebook, Yahoo etc

By making use of online advertising platforms such as Google Adwords, Facebook Advertising and Yahoo Ads, fake technical support services have been scamming people out of their money for many years, until last year on 14 May 2014 when the advertising giants decided to ban tech support websites from advertising on their platform.
At least 2400 fake tech support sites were taken down after the concerned advertising platforms were inundated with customer complaints. Investigations revealed that the scammers posed as support staff for legitimate companies like Netflix, Facebook, Google and AOL. The scammer will put a paid advertisement on the internet where potential customers can find the advert by browsing the sponsored search engine results or alternatively the potential victim will come across a display ad like the one you see on Facebook. An example is shown below:
Fake Ad for Gmail Tech Support Scam 

Users who are looking for support or seeking to solve issues with their online account will call the fake tech support company for help. As you can see above, the scammer gives a toll-free phone number for instant chat on the Ad offering “instant online solutions” by “certified technicians” who are there 24/7 all year long to “secure your data in a safe medium”.
The wording gives you the feeling that you are working with professionals who can solve your account issues instantly. When you call the number, the “representative” will offer you a solution to fix your problem. He or she may tell you to pay with your credit card or they can convince you to download a file or install some software immediately on your computer.
If you send money, they will pretend to solve the problem and you will not hear from them again. If you download the file onto your computer or install the software, then you have just been infected with some malware that will steal your data and send it to the scammer for criminal purposes.
The aim of the scammers is to get as much information as they can from the victim they are talking to. They will try to extract sensitive details like your password, try to charge your credit card online, sell you a product or make you install some software that will capture your computer keystrokes.
Scammers may also cold-call you instead of putting Ads on the internet .Read This >>> So Google Called You?
Fake Email – Netflix Tech Support Scam

Besides using Ads and cold-calling, scammers may send you a fake Email that seeks to address your account issues. For example, there have been reports of Gmail users receiving fake emails purporting to be from Netflix Technical Support. The email, complete with a Netflix logo informs you that your account has been suspended and you are required to regain access by calling a specific number that is given in the message.
Even worse, the scammer may send a phishing email that will download a malicious file on your computer when you click the link.To get an insight into tech support scams, read the Malwarebytes blog

Jan 15

Ransomware Virus / Trojan like CryptoWall Will Lock Your Computer Files and Demand Payment

3 Law Firms Attacked By CryptoWall Ransomware Virus – $50,000 Lost in Ransom Money

You have probably heard about the infamous Cryptolocker ransomware virus that first made headlines in 2013. Before the malware ring was cracked down by the FBI, it had affected over 500,000 people and netted over 3 million USD for its operators in ransom money. The Cryptolocker ransomware was distributed through the Zeus Trojan horse, a stealthy phishing malware affecting millions of computers around the world, especially the USA and other developed English-speaking countries.

Ransomware simply encrypts all your files once it gets installed on your computer by a virus or other malicious agent. It can encrypt the files in an entire network of computers, making it a deadly threat for companies and organizations. The files cannot be decrypted or opened because the key is kept by the attacker. In order to get the key and get access to your files, you have to buy the key from the attacker. The Cryptolocker criminals were charging $400 to unlock the files, paid through bitcoin.It was only after the Cryptolocker ring was busted by the FBI, that the victims were able to get access to their files via a special website called Decrypt Cryptolocker.
Despite shutting down Cryptolocker, new types of ransomware viruses are emerging, and one of them is called CryptoWall.In Vancouver, USA, three law firms have been attacked by the virus, and one firm paid $50,000 to recover their files.Ransomware operators are like hostage takers, they will give you a deadline to pay the money or else you will not get your files. The firm was given 72 hours to pay the money or kiss goodbye to the files.
If you don’t backup your files on a system that is not attached to your computer or network, then you will not be able to get a copy of your files. The virus can look deeper and encrypt files in removable hard drives that are attached to your network.
The worst thing about ransomware is that there is no way to unlock the files without the help of the hacker. If developers can create a strong encryption system for banks and online stores, what can stop blackhat developers from creating a similar encryption for criminal purposes?
There are multiple ways in which ransomware can be delivered on computers. It is most commonly delivered by phishing emails, however it can also be installed on your computer through fake tech support scams. You should watch out for fake emails in your inbox. Clicking links in phishing email will download malware on your computer.
How to Protect Yourself from Ransomware like CryptoWall
The threat of ransomware should be taken seriously because there is no way of unlocking your computer files once they are encrypted. Unless you have a backup, you are screwed. To protect yourself against ransomware viruses, you must do the following:

CryptoPrevent
·         Install CryptoPrevent.This antivirus program was especially made to block the Cryptolocker ransomware,but it can also block similar types of ransomware through its virus update.
Whitelisting
·         Program whitelisting: A program whitelist is an effective way to stop unauthorized programs from installing and running on your computer. Antivirus programs usually rely on an updated virus database to detect threats, leaving the possibility of unknown viruses to infect your computer. A program whitelist can stop unknown viruses and exe files from running on your computer.
Use AppLocker
·         The Windows 7 Ultimate OS  as well as the Enterprise Editions have a whitelisting feature called Applocker.If you don’t have the Applocker on your PC, you can whitelist programs using the Family Safety feature
Backup Files
·         Make regular backups that are stored elsewhere, separate from the network e.g. on a cloud server like DropBox, OneDrive, Box.com or Google Drive.
Disconnect Internet
·         Computers with vital data should be disconnected from the internet. The ransomware virus is spread online through phishing email, disconnecting the backup servers from the internet will save your files from malware.

 

Jan 14

Gmail Scam – Fake Phishing Messages about Your Google Account

Gmail scams where the scammer sends fake phishing messages are not new. While a basic Gmail phishing message is easily identifiable, some more sophisticated messages are subtle and cleverly disguised, making them hard to catch. However, whatever the level of sophistication, there are common characteristics between these fake emails – the goal is to steal your login info and ultimately get access to your bank account or credit card.
One type of email phishing scam that is doing the rounds, which you should watch out for, is an email that comes into your inbox, purporting to be Google. As you might know, it is much easier to open an email from a trusted brand and click the link without a second thought. On the other hand, when the email is coming from an unknown website or vendor, your red flags will be triggered.
The latest scam as reported by KiviTV includes convincing legitimate-looking messages which look exactly like Google email formats. In one email, the scammer informs you about your Gmail account which has exceeded the allowed storage quota. In another variation of this scam, the message might be different, telling you that your email has been delayed or deferred. The goal of this trick is to scare you into taking immediate action to restore your Gmail service. You will click the link in panic, but alas, the link will take you to a malware site or download viruses on your computer.
Using a bit of common sense, like checking the amount of free space left on your email might save you from this phishing attack, but since the messages look so real and convincing, you will be tempted to click the link, besides most people have little time for investigations.
How to Identify Fake Phishing Messages
By doing a little investigation before you click a link inside a Gmail message, you can save yourself from phishing attacks:
–          Check where the mail is coming from, the dumb scammer will use a clearly fake email domain, the sophisticated scammer may cloak or disguise the fake domain and the advanced scammer will use a genuine google.com domain to trick you >>> Read This
–          To reveal fake domains that are hidden by hyperlinks in the message body, hover your mouse over the hyperlink or URL to see the true domain. The hyperlink will be google.combut the true domain will be something different e.g.  googlesupportheadquarters.com



Fake URL – Hover Mouse Over Link To See True Destination



Fake URL – Hover Your Mouse Over Link To See True Destination





Genuine URL – Hover To See True Destination



–          Compare the email with a real Google email, you might notice some small differences between their design and formatting.
–          Grammar errors and typos are one of the common giveaways for scam emails.
–          USB Security Key : This is a surefire way of protecting yourself against phishing messages and fake websites.